1
as in to hover
to rest or move along the surface of a liquid or in the air
a canoe floating down the river particles of dust floating in the air
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to wander
to move about from place to place aimlessly
lost touch with a childhood friend who spent much of his adult life floating from place to place
Synonyms & Similar Words
as in dock
a structure used by boats and ships for taking on or landing cargo and passengers
the crew put the cargo on the float before heading back down the river
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of float
Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 Apr. 2026
Trump has floated cuts of this magnitude, eliciting widespread pushback from various pockets of the space community.
—Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 11 Apr. 2026
ABC News, 2 Apr. 2026
Sculptor and illustrator Jacques Tilly, who designed the aforementioned float, has been reported to the police for disseminating hate speech and violating the Criminal Code, which prohibits the use of Nazi imagery for purposes not expressly linked to art, scholarship, teaching, or reporting.
—Tim Brinkhof, JSTOR Daily, 1 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for float
Verb
She’s assisted by Dakota (Whitney Peak), the film’s other, younger heroine, who at one point makes her way over a floating rooftop and rickety branches, improvising the acrobatics of survival.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 Apr. 2026
Trump has floated cuts of this magnitude, eliciting widespread pushback from various pockets of the space community.
—Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 11 Apr. 2026
Noun
Carnival parades in Germany are famed for their floats mocking a wide variety of domestic and global political figures, and Putin has frequently been a target.
—ABC News, 2 Apr. 2026
Sculptor and illustrator Jacques Tilly, who designed the aforementioned float, has been reported to the police for disseminating hate speech and violating the Criminal Code, which prohibits the use of Nazi imagery for purposes not expressly linked to art, scholarship, teaching, or reporting.
—Tim Brinkhof, JSTOR Daily, 1 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for float
Recent Examples of Synonyms for float
Verb
-
Search-and-rescue corpsmen were overhead, with a hovering helicopter squadron.—
Erika I. Ritchie,
Oc Register,
16 Apr. 2026
-
With the average price for a vehicle hovering around $50,000, a compact sedan that starts at about $22,000 is an attractive entry point for buyers, industry experts said.—
Robert Ferris,
CNBC,
16 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Security video captured the puppy wandering around outside for about an hour before staff found her.—
Michele Gile,
CBS News,
14 Apr. 2026
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Older than Earth's continents, older than life itself, wandering through space for billions of years — an agent of chaos here for a fleeting visit.—
Jamie Carter,
Space.com,
13 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Participants are guided through the building’s water and HVAC systems along with parking garages and loading docks that are said to be in need of repair.—
Steven Sloan,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Apr. 2026
-
Trout hit a 2-1 fastball to the loading dock adjacent to Monument Park in center field and Adell hit another fastball on the next pitch into the visiting bullpen in left-center field.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
14 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The concierge can arrange bike rides through Lovćen National Park, white-water rafting in the Tara River Gorge, or even sailing excursions with Montenegrin Olympic sailor Milivoj Dukić.—
Travel + Leisure Editors,
Travel + Leisure,
15 Apr. 2026
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The site also features three miles of nature trails and a Treetop Discovery Tower with views of Lake Huron, the Straits of Mackinac and Mackinac Island, along with interpretive programming that explains how sawn lumber was rafted across behind sailing ships.—
Andy Morrison,
USA Today,
15 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Neanderthals mostly lived in Europe, while more recent additions to the family, the Denisovans, roamed Asia.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
17 Apr. 2026
-
Soon, Norton Tire outfitted most of the 20,000 cars that roamed the young city’s streets by the early 1930s.—
Howard Cohen,
Miami Herald,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The terminal has nine berths and over 12,000 feet of wharf, and has an annual handling capacity of 9 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs).—
Glenn Taylor,
Footwear News,
10 Apr. 2026
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With 20 restaurants and other businesses, the wharf provides 10% of Santa Cruz’s economy and 400 jobs.—
Paul Rogers,
Mercury News,
8 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The notation was curiously quaint, dots and curly tails swimming along like so many tadpoles.—
Tim Parks,
New Yorker,
11 Apr. 2026
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The person swimming in the lane next to mine was doing the breaststroke and hit me with her leg, under the lane rope, on two consecutive laps.—
Judith Martin,
Sun Sentinel,
11 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Away from the city’s concrete and sounds, the scent of herbs drifts through the air and light pours in from the floor-to-ceiling windows.—
Travel + Leisure Editors,
Travel + Leisure,
15 Apr. 2026
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Oil prices drifted up and down Wednesday and showed that caution remains in financial markets.—
Stan Choe,
Los Angeles Times,
15 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Float.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/float. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.
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